What is Electrochemistry ?

Abstract

The science of electrochemistry was born at the end of the eighteenth century following intense interest in the production of electricity by animals such as the torpedo and the electric eel. The key phenomena were observed just at the turn of the century. Volta invented his pile in which chemical species were consumed with the production of electricity and a few months afterwards Nicholson and Carlisle used this electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. It is this two-way process which lies at the heart of electrochemistry; it may be represented by a very simple diagram Electricity ⇆ chemical compounds which hides the many complexities of this interchange. One might imagine that study of a branch of science over nearly two centuries would exhaust its interest and its potentialities but this is far from being so. Electrochemistry continues to find new applications in wider fields as well as providing scope for greater understanding of its fundamentals. A brief and rather selective outline of the history of the subject should illustrate this as well as the range of its interest.